What's new in the recruiting war for South Jersey's best football prospect, Holy Spirit High linebacker/defensive end Marcus Witherspoon?

Witherspoon said early last night that he would attend Michigan, Tennessee or Rutgers.

Yes, Rutgers is a late entry in the recruiting picture.

"Right now, I'm not sure what I'm going to do," he said. "All I can say is, I will sign on Feb. 6," the first day recruits can sign binding letters of intent.

This one is up in the air; I kind of expect he'll go elsewhere. It's rare that a kid recommits to a school after publicly decommitting. (Visiting elsewhere is another matter.) (HT: The Diag.)

GBW asks "Does [MI DE Nick] Perry Have a Leader?" in a premium article; another Scout premium article, this from the USC site, answers:

“My top three is USC, Michigan and Miami. Right now USC is at the top," Perry said.

An instate player declaring anyone other than Michigan his leader is bad, but it's nice that Michigan State is slipping out of the picture. If Perry stays close to home it will be Michigan. Perry has a tendency to go on a visit, drop some quotes that suggest the school he's just visited is going to be the choice, then repeat the process with another school. Michigan has him in this weekend, then he'll make a trip to Miami.

Yesterday Rivals' Mike Farrell reported that PA HB Christian Wilson was under no circumstances going to Michigan. His mom contradicts that, but also makes it sound unlikely Wilson ends up on campus:

Christian has told no one he was not attending MI. I personally didn't appreciate the comment of slandering my son (I think he said any kid) if he would choose not to attend MI. He doesn't deserve that. He is a 17 year old that just had the rug pulled out from under him. He was in love with the former staff and Coach Carr. lets face it, RR is a total 180 when it comes to his style of coaching.

He has always been a solid commit and was real concerned with the coaching changes. He is not a full back or a TE and at this point, the TE recruits are being told they could play H-Back and they just recruited another running back.

What is he to think. He is still waiting to hear from RR.

There's more in this vein. It appears that Michigan and Wilson are headed for a mutual parting of the ways.

Oh, and right, the bolded line above. Does Wilson's mom mean that Michigan's received a commitment from another tailback here or just that they've sent out some offers (which they have)? The way it's phrased it seems like the former. There's been some buzz that Trotwood-Madison RB Michael Shaw, a teammate of Brandon Moore and a visitor last weekend, was very much in play for Michigan. No other tailbacks have visited recently, AFAIK.

FL OT Rhonne Sanderson is and up-and-coming name who just visited Michigan State. He's got Florida State on tap this weekend, then a visit back around these parts:

Sanderson said that Michigan has offered him a visit for Feb. 2nd, one week after he's scheduled to go to Florida State. Sanderson, a Times first-team all county lineman, said the Wolverines will likely offer him on his trip, like the rival Spartans did last weekend.

And, just like that, Michigan has made Sanderson's "top-three" - which includes FSU and MSU - pretty formidable.

"I like it a lot," Sanderson said of Michigan. "A lot of big-time offensive linemen come out of there. They're kind of like a powerhouse with a lot of history and tradition."

If Florida State offers it'll be tough to reel him in.

I count 23 scholarships available and 15 commits; if Rodriguez is going to get to 25 he's going to have to start racking up some dudes quick.